Chapter 179: The Plight of the Lower-Ranked Princes
"Given the Third Prince's temperament, our best course of action is to follow his wishes and align ourselves with him." Shimano looked at Kurapika and continued, "This way, I believe we won't become his target until the number of princes is reduced to a certain extent."
Kurapika asked, "So you contacted him first to ensure safety?"
Shimano nodded and said, "Exactly."
She then began analyzing the Fifth Prince.
"Although the Fifth Prince isn't the type to engage in direct communication, he holds sharp criticisms of the current monarchy. His participation in this Succession Contest is likely motivated by a desire to prevent the upper-ranked princes from seizing power. He also aims to negotiate with the current king after achieving this goal, helping the lower-ranked princes secure special political influence."
Shimano added, "Therefore, I judged that given his character, prioritizing contact with the Third Prince and making him wait wouldn't be perceived as an insult."
In a short time, this maid named Shimano had outlined the styles and details of three princes, demonstrating her deep understanding of the Kakin royal family.
Kurapika compared this with his own earlier situation—so far, all of Shimano's judgments had been correct.
If not for Shimano acting first and reporting later this time, he might have become the one who put Queen Oito and the Fourteenth Prince in a difficult position.
He suddenly thought of something and asked, "Do you think the First Prince will send new guards?"
Asking this proved that Kurapika had acknowledged Shimano's abilities.
Without hesitation, Shimano replied, "Yes, and the new guards are likely already on their way."
Unfortunately, the new guards would never arrive.
Not because Shimano was wrong.
They were indeed on their way, but they would never reach the Fourteenth Prince's area.
Mord glanced at the lifeless body of the First Prince's private soldier on the ground and continued walking toward the Twelfth Prince's location.
I just wanted to see your abilities—was it necessary to take poison and kill yourself?
It seems I must be cautious about this when facing the First Prince's private soldiers next time.
...
"Lord Mord?!" Momoze blinked as she looked at Mord entering through the door, then at the other Mord inside the room. Like a curious child, she found such things astonishing no matter how many times she saw them.
The newcomer was indeed Mord, while the one in the Twelfth Prince's room was a clone he had created using his newly learned duplication ability.
Additionally, a corpse lay in the room.
It was a private soldier sent by the First Prince to the Twelfth Prince's side. Seeing no other guards in the room and only Momoze present, the soldier was initially stunned, then ecstatically lunged at her.
He was killed on the spot by the Mord clone that had rushed over.
Mord snapped his fingers, and the clone vanished. He casually updated Momoze on the situation with the Fourteenth Prince.
After hearing Mord's words, Momoze's face darkened as she spoke: "This is the current situation of the lower-ranked princes. The fourteenth prince is just an infant yet has to be dragged into such struggles. It's truly pitiful."
At the same time, among the various lower-ranked princes' quarters.
In the residence of the thirteenth prince, Momoze's full-blooded younger brother.
Hanzo, who had been forcibly taken from Momoze's side by Queen Sevanti to serve the thirteenth prince, glanced sideways at the presence behind Prince Marayam and whispered to Bisky beside him: "Bisky, that thing... has it grown larger again?"
Without turning her head, Bisky replied calmly: "Yes, and it has already realized that we can see it."
The subject of Hanzo and Bisky's discussion, the thirteenth prince, was currently enjoying a warm mother-son meal.
"Slow down, you're always like this, scattering food all over the table," Queen Sevanti watched the thirteenth prince while carefully wiping the greasy mouth of the bear-like child with her silk handkerchief, her eyes filled with doting affection.
What she didn't know was that without Mord's intervention, her other child would likely be lying in a cold coffin by now.
But even if she knew, she probably wouldn't shed a single tear for Momoze.
Because it was she, the mother, who had personally pushed Momoze toward that desperate situation.
The subject of Hanzo and Bisky's discussion was precisely the thirteenth prince's Guardian Spirit Beast.
In the beginning, the Guardian Spirit Beast was a dragon that could elegantly fly through the air. Even though this dragon had a pig's snout, compared to the other princes' bizarre-looking Guardian Spirit Beasts, this dragon-shaped Guardian Spirit Beast appeared much cuter.
But not much time had passed.
Its current appearance was already unbearable to look at, seeming more like a hybrid of dragon, pig, and crocodile. Its body had become abnormally large, standing behind the thirteenth prince watching him eat.
It continuously made unclear gurgling sounds from its mouth.
In another direction adjacent to Momoze's area, in the eleventh district, lived the eleventh prince Fugetsu.
Introverted and timid by nature, she clearly hadn't recovered from the shock of the throne Succession Contest. The mere thought of the war's cruelty made her burst into tears.
Fugetsu knelt on her bed, looking at a photo on her phone of herself with the tenth prince Kacho. In the picture, the two were snuggled together at a ski resort, smiling like blooming flowers.
This was the only comfort she could find in her current cruel circumstances.
Outside the bedroom, the two guards Longhi and Pitakusu, sent by the sixth queen to protect Fugetsu, heard faint sobbing sounds coming from the room, their expressions turning grim.
"The Succession Contest has just begun. If the eleventh prince remains this tense, she won't last until the end."
"Indeed. For the eleventh prince's sake, I think our first priority should be adjusting our defensive positions. Only the two of us genuinely want to protect the eleventh prince. Others at best are just here to monitor, and at worst might even be assassins..."
...
Meanwhile, with the tenth prince Kacho, Fugetsu's twin sister.
Smash!
The sound of shattering plates and bowls echoed through the room.
"Disgusting! Even dogs in the slums wouldn't eat this!"
"Honestly! I'm wasting my salary on you all, can't even handle such a simple task properly. What a bunch of useless fools!"
The Tenth Prince Kacho was furiously berating the servants who had come to clean up the shattered plates and bowls scattered across the floor.
On the surface, the servants were carefully gathering the broken porcelain pieces, not daring to voice any objection to Kacho's harsh words. But deep inside, they were cursing him with the most venomous thoughts imaginable.
"Just drop dead already."
"If only we served the Eleventh Prince instead. They're twins, so why does this one have such a terrible personality!"